Episode Three: Ancient History
by Wolfman1
Summary: Barbara recounts one of the darkest days in Gotham's history and its connection to Helena. (Chapter 8 & 9 are up.)
1. Author's Note

**Author's Note:**

And then there were three.

           This is the third "episode" of my project. If you haven't read the first two episodes, _Birds of a Feather and_ Fear_, you may want to before reading this. _

In case you don't want to go back, my project is simply this: I'm writing a series of episodes as if I'd been asked to revamp the _Birds of Prey television show to be seen on a new network. Some things will be inspired by the recently canceled show, but most of it will center more on the comic book continuity without having to rely heavily on either one._

I hope you like it.

Feel free to post reviews. If you don't like it, please tell me why so I might be able to improve on it in the future.

Thanks for reading,

Wolfman


	2. Chapter One

**Chapter One**

            For over an hour they'd talked; the sixteen-year-old daughter of a once famous cat-burglar and the former rooftop adventurer turned information gatherer. For over an hour they'd asked each other questions, each one subtly gauging the other to see if there were any suspicious incongruities in the other one's answers. Neither woman could find any. 

            For Helena Kanly, daughter of the infamous Catwoman, the night still hadn't lost its edge. She still felt nervous, tense, even though, deep down, she felt she could trust the woman sitting across from her. After watching her mother's murder and having two attempts on her own life, and now finding out another attempt by a criminal mastermind had been made to locate her for unknown reasons, Helena wasn't surprised by her inability to instantly trust someone. 

            For Barbara Gordon, formerly Batgirl, now the information guru and world renowned computer hacker known as Oracle, the night had also taken on a bit of a surreal quality. She'd never expected to become the guardian of the child of a known super villain. Having to explain her work as a cyber-super-hero was even further from her mind. 

            She could tell Helena was having a difficult time, anxious and eager in one moment and sullen and withdrawn the next. Barbara felt for her because she knew some of those conflicting emotions herself. Every time she felt like she'd come to terms with living the rest of her life in a wheelchair, something would happen to reopen those mental wounds. Only time and a strong will had any hope of overcoming such things and even they were fickle beasts.

            "So what is Batman's real name?" Helena asked.

            "Sorry," Barbara smiled. "I can't tell you that."

            "You told me who you were."

            "Not entirely by choice," Barbara reminded the girl. "Even so, I don't have the right to spill other people's secrets. And even some of my secrets need to stay secret if they could possibly compromise someone else."

            Both women turned at the sound of another's approach. Dinah Lance, also known as the Black Canary, walked down the stairs wearing a pair of jeans and a black, sleeveless shirt. As she got closer, Barbara could see a bruise starting to form on her temple where she'd been hit earlier with the butt of a gun. Concealer couldn't quite cover it completely.

            "If everything's okay here, I'm going to head down stairs," she said. "Do me a favor and keep any life threatening emergencies to a minimum for the rest of the night."

            "I'll buzz you if we need you," Barbara said. "I don't see any reason why we should, though. Tell Gibson I said hi." Gibson was the manager of a bar Dinah own at the base of the Gotham Clock Tower, in the top of which they now stood. The Clock Tower consisted of mostly business offices, with Barbara's apartment and secret base of operations taking up the top two floors and the main clock area. A secret elevator connected the top of the tower to the rest of the building.

            "I'll do it." She started to leave but noticed Helena staring at her. "Yes?"

            "I thought you were a blonde?" Helena asked.

            Dinah twirled a strand of the dark wig she was wearing. "Secret identity. A pair of glasses and a cow-lick doesn't work for everyone."

            Dinah winked a Barbara and left. When Helena turned her puzzled look to Barbara, the older woman said, "Don't ask."

            After a brief silence, Helena asked, "How did my mother save your life?"

            Barbara took a deep breath and let it out slowly. 

            "You don't ask the easy ones," she said.

            "Is it bad? Did she do something wrong?"

            "No, no," Barbara said, waving her hand to dismiss the notion. "That part's not. It's just that a lot happened that day, including this." She thumped the arm of the wheelchair. "It's also the day that…well, let's just say that a lot happened that day. It's a long story."  

             "We have time."

            Barbara nodded and tried to think of a way to avoid the subject. She wished she's never said anything but it was too late for that. Her palms were sweating just thinking about it and she rubbed her palms against her skirt. 

"Okay. Let me get another cup of coffee and I'll tell you all about it."  


	3. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

            The two women once again sat in silence. Barbara has turned down the lights and gloomy shadows surrounded them. She collected her thoughts slowly, finally saying, "There's a lot about that day I haven't thought about in years. In fact, I've gone quite out of my way to avoid thinking about them. If I'm going to do this, I need to work through it slowly. You're just going to have to bear with me."

            Helena nodded her consent, afraid that speaking might break the spell.

            "Okay." Barbara took another sip of her coffee.

            "I'm sure you remember the earthquake. It was one of the biggest ones ever recorded. Most of Gotham crumbled, if not in the first wave, then in one of the many aftershocks. Only the buildings built by WayneTech, like this clock tower, seemed to be left standing. Bruce Wayne seemed to always think ahead and had extra supports built into all of his buildings. 

            "At first, Gotham at its worst became Gotham at its finest. Almost immediately, everyone put aside their differences and worked together to dig. Survivors or bodies, it didn't matter. What one person had he was willing to share with his neighbors. Hospitals were set up to take the wounded, no matter who they were. Known criminals, rival gang members, whoever; no one really cared at that point. They were simply people in need. 

            "All of this happened before any rescue crews showed up, but show up they did. From Metropolis, Bludhaven, even as far away as Central City, crews started showing up in droves. They managed to rescue a fair amount of survivors, more than anyone dared to hope, really, but the casualties were staggering. Once the numbers came in of how many were dead and how much money it would take to rebuild, the federal government did the unthinkable: they declared Gotham City a no man's land.

            "Residents were given two weeks to vacate the city. Many did, but some people were too injured to be moved or had family members who were and they wouldn't leave them. Others just flat refused. What most people outside of Gotham didn't understand was that Gotham wasn't just a city, it was an entity. It was in the people's blood. Asking some people to leave was like asking them to cut off their own arm for no good reason. They just couldn't do it. I was one of those people.

"At the end of the two weeks, the bridges were destroyed and Gotham was cut off from the rest of the world. Armed troops patrolled the border and any attempt toe leave or enter Gotham was met with deadly force. 

"Then the situation became even worse.

"When the earthquake hit, some of the worst criminals ever to breathe were released into the city. Arkham Asylum sat on the fault line and cracked down the middle. Some of the inmates were killed when the quake hit. Others managed to escape afterwards. Those that didn't were release by Dr. Harley Quinzel. If there was ever someone who should have been a patient there, it was her.  

"Dr. Quinzel was a borderline schizophrenic before she started work as a psychiatrist at Arkham. She never should have gotten the job to begin with but old man Arkham, who ran the place, wasn't all that choosy when it came to personnel. If someone was willing to work, they were hired. 

"After she started, she slowly fell under the spell of, and then in love with, the Joker, the looniest of the loony. He was crazy, without a doubt, but very sly and manipulative when he wanted to be. She eventually became his sidekick and possibly his lover. She called herself Harley Quinn and would do his bidding without a second thought.

"Of the criminals that escaped, many were recaptured quickly by either Batman, Nightwing, who had come over from Bludhaven to help, or me. We placed them in the Blackgate prison in Gotham harbor. Another villain, named Lock-Up, was named warden by Batman. Lock-Up specialized in creating death traps and delighted in making Blackgate into an inescapable fortress. He did his job well. Eventually, Blackgate was destroyed and the prisoners were shipped to a prison called The Vault just outside of Metropolis, but that was much later.

"The villains that remained free the longest managed to grab territory and power and Gotham ended up split into districts. Turf was frequently broke out. Batman held some land under his protection, as did the GCPD, the Gotham City Police Department. My father had stayed behind as had several of his best officers. Slowly, we, the Bat crew, and the GCPD managed to bring more and more of Gotham under more civilized rule.  People were beginning to build themselves back into some semblance of a community. 

"What we couldn't figure out, and often didn't have time to dwell upon, was where the bad guys were disappearing to. The Riddler, Two-Face, Killer Croc, Mr. Freeze. At one time or another, they all held land but were over thrown. In the meantime, while all of this was going on, the Joker and Harley Quinn were keeping a low profile. We found out later that he had managed to find a previously forgotten series of tunnels and caves near the south side docks. The earthquake had reopened huge caverns and passages not seen since the settling of Gotham. He was hiding there and building an army. As each territory lord was overthrown, he would invite them and their gangs to join him for what he promised to be the biggest killing joke of all. 

"They joined him but even they didn't realize at the time how over the edge he had gone. If they'd known what his true plan was, I doubt any of them, even Croc, as dim as he was, would have gone along with it. 

"To top it off, we were starting to get complacent. We were thinking with everything that had happened it couldn't get any worse.

"We were wrong."


	4. Chapter Three

**Chapter Three**

            "Around five months after No Man's Land was declared, we gained another member to our little group. His name was Jason Todd.

"His parents had been killed in the quake He had survived on the street on his own, avoiding all the gangs and stealing or foraging for whatever he needed. He could have simply gone to the GCPD section but his father had been a petty criminal, in and out of jail every few months, and he had gained a major distrust of the police.

"He finally found his way into a hidden section of tunnels off of the main subway route. Batman had set up several small stations around the city to work out of. Jason found one of them. With plenty of food and fresh water stored there, he camped and foraged. He didn't stay completely undetected, which would have been virtually impossible given where he was, but his ingenuity and street smarts impressed Batman, who let him stay. 

"I don't think Batman ever intended to let Jason become the next Robin, but eventually that's what happened. Jason was always under strict orders not to let himself been seen unless he was with Batman. Batman always said criminals were a cowardly, superstitious lot and he hoped that the reports of an ever youthful robin by his side would give credence to the myth that they were immortal, that no matter what man or nature threw at them, they would always be.

"Not everyone was happy with this new development. I, for one, absolutely hated the idea. Batman kept him out of trouble for the most part, and the kid was a good fighter when he was in a scrape, but I kept getting this uneasy feeling like something was wrong. I was young when I started, and so were the others, but I just couldn't shake that feeling that Batman was making a big mistake. 

"Over the next few months we worked alongside the GCPD and a growing number of civilians to bring a bit of stability back to Gotham. Little by little we gained land until half of Gotham was under our control. It helped that the criminals were fighting each other for control of what was left. Two-Face, Killer Croc, Riddler, Penguin. They were all openly fighting for control.

"But the real threat was still hidden and because we were all a little pre-occupied, none of us saw it coming. Bane, the one person who had come closest to destroying Batman, was in Gotham, staying in the shadows. It was the plan of Lex Luthor, Metropolis' biggest kingpin of crime, to lobby for Gotham's re-admittance into the United States and then to help rebuild it. With all the records gone, he then planned to bring Gotham under his control through ownership of most, if not all, of the property. Bane's mission was a simple one: destroy any records of property ownership left in Gotham. No one was ever able to prove any of this, of course, but we all knew it. 

"Thanks to the efforts of both Batman and Bruce Wayne, Luthor's plan didn't work. It only succeeded in making it impossible for him to back out of his commitment of reconstruction. The National Guard came in to help restore order, but most of the worst criminals managed to escape and go underground.

"Until this time, we had completely misjudged where the real threat lay. While we were fighting the obvious threats, the Joker had been planning a much greater one. He'd always had a flair for the dramatic, and this time was no different, but his lack of public appearances led us to believe he'd hightailed it out of Gotham as soon as he could. 

"I still don't know if it was because he'd lost the last bit of sanity he possessed or because he'd lost the mind-numbing insanity that had forever clouded his mind but the Joker had suddenly become worse than we could ever have imagined. He'd always been smart, but now he was cold and calculating, ruthlessly planning to finish what the earthquake had started."


	5. Chapter Four

**Chapter Four**

             "What does this have to do with my mother?" Helena asked. "We didn't even live in Gotham during all of that. Mom moved us out right after the quake hit. We didn't move back until about a year after the reconstruction. We lived in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Metropolis."

            "Was there a time that she was ever gone for a few days?" Barbara asked.

            "There was this one time she left me with this older couple, Wesley and Dian, for a week or so. She said she had some business to take care…" She trailed off and nodded her head in understanding. "That's when she came here, isn't it."

            "Was that the only time she left you?"

            "That I can remember."

            "That's probably it, then."

            Helena stood and began walking around the large, open area of the clock tower. Barbara swiveled her chair in order to keep the girl in sight. Helena walked in an ever widening circle, lightly touching anything that came within reach as if testing to see if they were real. 

            "Is something wrong?" Barbara asked.

            "Nothing much different than an hour ago," Helena replied. "It's not like my mother ever hid who she was from me. She told me about many of her adventures, how she started, how she almost died on more than one occasion. She even taught me all the skills she knew; how to fight, tumble, pick locks. She always said they were things I might need to know one day. 

            "But she always kept part of herself hidden. She never told me why we returned to Gotham, who my father was and until recently, I didn't even know she'd changed her name. Now you're telling me that one day she left me with a couple of strangers to join a bunch of other villains to-"

            "What makes you think she joined with them?" Barbara interrupted. "I never said that."

            "Isn't that what you're leading up to? She was a "bad guy", wasn't she? A villain for you to fight?"

            "No. Your mother may have done some bad things in her time but she never killed anyone. She never blew up a building or put other people's life in danger just to save her own skin. From what I saw, she always seemed to be in it for the thrill more than anything else. And when it came down to brass tacks, she fought alongside us, against the Joker and his crew. Your mother was not a bad person. I never thought that and neither did anyone else, as far as I know.

            "And those strangers she left you with, if they're who I think they are, you couldn't have been any safer. I don't know how your mother knew them, but I do know they would have protected you with their lives, if it came to that."

            "Then why did she come back?" Helena yelled angrily. Her calm façade was cracking. Tears welled in the corners of her eyes. "Why didn't we just stay the hell away from this place?"

            "I don't know," Barbara said. Her voice was low, calm. "All I can tell you is that she made a difference. Not just to me but probably to all of Gotham."


	6. Chapter Five

**Chapter Five**

            "Once the National Guard came in to help police everything, it gave the rest of us time to focus on other things. Sleep, a good meal, whatever was needed. During the next three or four months, things calmed down and we were regulated to the background. The elevated security around Gotham kept conflicts to a minimum. 

            "Naturally, this kind of peace couldn't last.  

            "Several construction sites started to become the targets of saboteurs. They would strike at random, setting off small charges to collapse ongoing constructs, disabling machines or flat out stealing supplies, setting everything back a day or two each time. There were so many sites and the attacks were so random that no pattern was readily noticeable. The background noise of destruction also made it hard to find any trace evidence to point out our bad guy. To make it even worse, whoever was doing it seemed to be doing it mainly for sport. They didn't seem to be any reason for the attacks other than to be annoying.

            "The security around most of the sites was tightened but it did nothing to stop the attacks. Finally, we stepped in to lend a hand. We each took a different section of town to watch and made regular patrols. What the Guard failed to do in full view we hoped to accomplish in the shadows. It took a while but eventually it paid off and I was the lucky one who found them. 

            "Two figures were sneaking around a small building holding supplies for the site. They were planting small explosives but when I radioed Batman, he told me to follow them instead of capturing them. The plan was to cut off the problem at its source, including any and all who might be helping them. 

            "They finished quickly. I followed behind them as they made their way to the south docks. They kept to the shadows as much as I did and we avoided almost all contact with other people. When we go to the docks, our path took us underneath the rubble of an old warehouse. The basement floor had collapsed into an underground cavern that lead to other caverns, some manmade, some not. 

            "It was like navigating a maze. To get to where we were going, you had to go from natural cave formations to part of the old subway system to a section of the sewer back to another underground cave to what looked like a man-made bunker. Because of all the damage the earthquake caused, some areas were blocked by cave-ins, which in turn opened other. At one point, we dropped straight down almost thirty feet before having to climb back up by twenty. It was tough to follow them without being seen, but I managed. I also had to use the infrared spray paint in my utility belt to mark the passage so I would be able to find my way out. 

            "It took almost half an hour to reach our destination. I tried to picture how far we had traveled back under Gotham, but the amount of up, down and sideways movement made it almost impossible. 

            "What I saw when we did arrive scared me more than anything I'd experienced before.

            "The passageway opened into a large cavern. The cavern was a natural formation but it had clearly been shaped and formed by someone into a small underground city, complete with buildings and a common area. If it were above ground I'd say it was a city park surrounded by small office buildings. Some scaffolding, stolen from the sites, was set up around the central area. How they got it down there through the path I'd just taken I couldn't figure, unless there was another way in but I couldn't see one from my vantage point. There were crates of different sizes stacked in the corners of the cavern. Sounds of construction echoed loudly.   

            "What scared me, though, were the people I saw. Standing in the middle of the cavern, by one of the larger crates, was the Joker. I also saw Two-Face off to one side, talking to a group of men. Killer Croc, the Riddler and the Penguin were there as well, with all of their henchmen in tow. All in all, they had a small army hidden underneath Gotham. I tried to get an accurate count but stopped after eighty. I took in as much as I could before putting on my infrared visor and making my way back to the surface. 

            ""They must be planning to try and retake Gotham by force," Batman said, after I'd reported everything back to him. I'd sketched a diagram of the cavern and everything I'd remembered about it. He then came up with a plan.

            "A small group would storm the cavern and do as much damage as possible while a larger group, consisting mostly of GCPD and National Guard soldiers, would remain topside to pick off any who made it back up the passage. It was a good plan and probably would have worked if Batman's assessment of the threat had been more accurate. As it turned out, his accuracy was way off and the whole thing quickly turned into a disaster."


	7. Chapter Six

**Chapter Six**

            "That's when your mother joined us," Barbara said. "Along with Nightwing, that made five of us to dive into the deep end."

            "But why did Batman call her? I thought they were enemies."

            Barbara held her hands out, palms up, and shrugged. "I don't know. I've always assumed that he did it because he couldn't get the other Robin here. The family of that Robin moved to the other side of the country after the quake and there was no way to get him here."

            "Why not ask any of his super-hero buddies to help?"

            Barbara laughed. "You have to understand, Batman rarely asked for help from anybody, especially if they weren't from Gotham. He made it clear long ago that Gotham was his and everyone else was to stay out. Period. He even got a bit miffed when I started working with Dinah, but he got over it."

            "Nice guy."

            "His town, his rules. But he did need that extra muscle. That's why I think he contacted Catwoman. He needed someone else who could hold their own against the types of people we were going up against, someone he didn't have to keep an eye on the whole time. I thought we should just let the Guard handle it, but Batman insisted that it was our responsibility. He really shouldn't have taken Jason along, but Jason had proved himself to be an adequate fighter, so he went."

            "How many Robins were there, anyway? You keep adding more and more to the tale," Helena said. She'd curled up on the couch (cat-like, Barbara noted) and was looking at Barbara over the rim of her glass.

            "Three," Barbara said, using a finger on her right hand to tick off each of the three upraised fingers on her left. "The first one moved to Bludhaven and changed his name to Nightwing. He was Robin for over eight years and eventually grew too big for the green shorts. 

            "The second one, as I said, moved to the west coast with his family after the Quake. He still fights crime and has also changed his name. He calls himself Hawk now and has a partner named Dove. They were engaged, last I heard."

            "Is Dove a woman?" Helena asked. Barbara peered briefly at the girl over her glasses, gave a sly smile, and then ticked off her last finger.

            "Jason was the third and last Robin. After what happened, Batman never talked about having a partner again."

            "That bad?"

            "That bad. I really try not to think about it but there's no way to tell the story without Jason. We lost so much that night…"

            Barbara suddenly snatched her glasses off and rubbed at her eyes. She caught the tears before they fell, but just barely. Helena started to get up but Barbara waved her back down. 

            "I'm fine," she said, then shook her head. "No, I'm not. I've done everything in my power to forget that night. The pain, the fear, everything that happened. I just want to erase that grinning jackass's face from my mind, but it's branded there. I'm so scared that the last thing I'll see before I die is his face. I'm sorry; I've never talked to anyone about this. About that night. Not even with the people who were there."

            "If you don't want to continue-"

            "No, I'll be all right in a minute. I think you deserve to know everything. If nothing else, I think you deserve to know your mother wasn't just the criminal everyone makes her out to be."


	8. Chapter Seven

**Chapter Seven**

            "Even though the cavern had been hollowed out, there were still many nooks and crannies to hide in or man sized outcroppings to hide behind. All five of us found a place to hide where we could still see everything going on below. The scaffolding had all been moved to the edges of the cavern and the men were moving many of the crates to the center, stacking them randomly. The bosses were sitting around a table playing cards.

            "We waited and watched for over an hour before Batman gave the signal. We launched magnesium flares and smoke bombs before leaping into the main area. Resistance was met almost immediately but the confusion helped us. If anyone started shooting, they would more than likely hit one of their buddies before hitting one of us. 

            "That didn't stop Two-Face, however. He pulled two pistols and fired straight ahead of him, not caring who he hit. I was the closest to him and saw several men fall. I leapt to the side, somersaulting over one man and landing a heel on the jaw of another. Someone elbowed me in the ribs and knocked the breath out of me. I fell to the floor, curled into a ball, rolled backwards and rose to my feet. I saw a fist out of the corner of my eye, blocked it and delivered a roundhouse kick to the man's mid-section. He fell back with a grunt, taking the man behind him down at the same time.

            "It was complete pandemonium. I was so busy trying to dodge, feint and parry that I had no time to see where the others were or what was happening to them. I was in a constant state of movement. I leapfrogged over another man and came up behind Two-Face but before I could do anything a fist knocked me in the back of the head. I rolled with the blow but still saw black spots dance before my eyes. I fell to the floor and quickly rolled onto my back, ready to defend myself, but Robin had beat me too it. He'd come up behind my attacker and knocked him with a Bo-staff. Robin gave me a "thumbs up" and darted off.

            "I tried to refocus on Two-Face but he had run off. I looked around while dodging another fist and saw the Joker climbing a scaffolding platform. I made my way to another platform and climbed, ready to take the high-road to him. I was still forty feet from him when he pulled out a remote control device and pressed a button.

            "Small explosions rocked the cavern like a series of fireworks that circled the entire base of the room. They didn't do much damage but it did get everyone's attention. Almost all fighting suddenly stopped and all eyes turned to the Joker, his laughter echoing off the walls.

            ""Where are you Bats," Joker said. His voice carried more authority and command than I'd ever heard. 

            ""Give it up, Joker," Batman said. He was standing near the center of the room, on top of the biggest crate there. "You can't get away. Not this time."

            "The Joker laughed harder. "As always, Bats, you've got it wrong. I don't want to escape. I was just waiting for you to show up so I could see your face before I destroyed your precious Gotham." He waved the remote in the air. "You're standing on my swan song. One of three nuclear warheads buried under Gotham."

            "Batman started to grab the edge of the crate he was standing on, but the Joker stopped him. "Any attempt to open that crate will set off the warhead, as well as the other two."

            ""Joker! You double-crossing son-of-"

            ""Shut up, Croc, you idiot. Do you really think I'd join with you losers if there wasn't something in it for me? I need you to distract Batboy until I had everything ready. I have a powerful friend who wants Bats out of the way, even if it takes obliterating Gotham City to do it."

            ""And what do you get out of that, Joker? Batman asked. "You'll die as well." What could you possibly get out of your own death?"  

"The Joker's smile chilled my blood. From where I was I could see a change come over his face and there was something I'd never seen there before. Sanity. I still wonder if he lost so much of his sanity that he made a complete circle or if he'd regained enough to go completely over the edge by what he'd become. It was a study in contradictions either way. His one word answer to Batman's question made me realize how high the stakes really were, that this wasn't just another game to him. He said, "Peace."

"I started to charge him, reaching behind me for a bat-a-rang to throw but a figure in red and green beat me to it. Robin had managed to climb the wall behind the joker while he was talking and leapt the short distance to the platform. He may have even taken the Joker by surprise, but he gave a battle cry as he jumped. The Joker caught him in the throat with an elbow as he landed. Robin fell to the platform on all fours trying to pull a breath through his damaged windpipe. The Joker then reached behind him and pulled a .45 from a holster. He pressed it to the back of Robin's head.

""Hey, Riddler," Joker called out. "What kind of bird changes its species? A robin, when it becomes a dead duck."

            "Joker pulled the trigger and Jason's face disintegrated. The gunshot echoed throughout the cavern, resonating off the walls. His body slumped forward with a thud. 

            ""No!" I screamed. I ran forwarded, blinded by rage. If I reached him, I was going to kill him. I wanted to wrap my hand around his throat and watch him die slowly. I ran across my platform, jumping onto the one that stood between us. As I ran, he took careful aim and fired.

            "The unsteadiness of the scaffolding caused my balance to shift at the right moment and the first bullet barely grazed my shoulder. The second one, however, found its mark. I didn't feel pain as it ripped though my gut, only extreme warmth. I was actually surprised when I landed on the platform face first and found that I couldn't get up. My body wouldn't respond to my commands. 

            "That's when the pain hit. It landed so hard I couldn't even scream.

            "The Joker walked over to me and turned me over, using the toe of his shoe under my shoulder to do it. I rolled, helpless, and saw his grinning white face looking into mine. My vision was blurring around the edges, but he was crystal clear. He pointed the gun straight down at my face, his head tilted slightly, as if he were suddenly filled with curiosity.      

            ""See you around," he said, but before he could pull the trigger, another shape suddenly came into view. Catwoman came out of nowhere, silent as her namesake, hitting the Joker with a full body tackle. Then both disappeared from view.


	9. Chapter Eight

**Chapter Eight**

            Barbara was silent for a minute before saying, "That's when I passed out. I woke up a few days later in the hospital. I wasn't awake a great deal of the time them but when I was, I was fairly coherent. When the pain got too great, they'd give me some medicine and I'd be out again moments later.

            "The point is your mother stopped the Joker. We'd won. I don't know exactly what she to him but when she got done he was a bit worse off than I was. I woke up. He didn't. He's been in a coma ever since. His body just disappeared from the hospital. Whether or not that means he's woken up, I don't know. That's what Batman is currently looking in to."

            "How can you not know what happened? You were there, you have all these computers connected to who knows where to get you whatever information you want and you claim not to know what happened?"

            "I never asked. I got a few bits and pieces from other conversations while I was in the hospital but that's it. I've tried to put the rest behind me, tried to lose myself in my work here. It's bad enough I still have nightmares about it. I just couldn't bring myself to relive it while I was awake, too."

            "None of us quite recovered from that day," came a smooth baritone from the top of the stairs. Helena leapt to her feet again but Barbara calmly looked over her shoulder, looking more irritated than worried. 

            The man walked lightly down the stairs, making very little noise as he settled on each riser. He was tall, slender, wearing a black bodysuit which covered him from neck to toe. A stylish, sharp-angled bird in flight etched a blue streak across his chest from shoulder to shoulder. A domino mask cut a figure eight around his eyes and his thick black hair was wind-blown and mussed. 

            "How the hell did you get in here?" Barbara asked him. "I've reset all of the access code since you were last here."

            He tossed her a small, mirrored disc, which she caught easily. 

            "You had a fourteen degree blind spot on the east side of the building," he said, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. "Don't worry, I fixed it for you."

            "Thanks, Dick," she said, an extra emphasis of sarcasm bouncing off his name. His eyebrows shot up briefly and she realized she'd forgotten about Helena standing in front of the couch. He turned and offered his hand to the wide-eyed girl.

            "You must be Helena," he said. "I'm Nightwing."

            "Hi," she said, her eyes darting back and forth between the two adults. "So your name is Dick?"

            "That depends on how arrogant he's acting," Barbara said, giving Nightwing a sly smile. "So what are you doing here?"

            "Just making sure everything was okay," he said. He perched on the arm of the sofa. Helena took the hint and sat back down as well. "Things were a bit slow down in the 'Haven. I got here a little while ago but didn't want to interrupt. The two of you seemed fairly engrossed in your conversation."

            "So you saw what happened that night, too?" Helena prodded.    

            "Yeah," he answered. "I was a little unsure at first about having your mother come in with us, but in the end I was damn glad she did."


	10. Chapter Nine

**Chapter Nine**

            "When the explosions went off, I was busy doing a tap dance with Killer Croc. He was big and strong but he was also slow and stupid. I kept dancing out of his way and in his blind fury to get to me he was knocking over more of his guys than I could have hoped to.

            "Then the Joker started his stint and we were all caught off-guard. When he shot Jason, Batgirl - Barbara - wasn't the only one who went after him. I launched myself forward at the same time she did, but I was on the far side of the cavern. I saw her go down and I thought she was dead. 

            "That's when Catwoman appeared. She'd climbed up the wall behind them as Jason had and came down hard. She tackled him and they both rolled to the edge of the platform. She got to her feet first but he quickly followed, flashing the remote in the air in front of her, taunting her, his grin bigger than ever. But she'd equipped her gloves with steel claws and she knew how to use them. She slashed and the Joker screamed. When we saw him later, I was shocked at how much damage had been done. She'd caught his forearm with her claws and laid it bare to the bone. 

            "He dropped the remote and it shattered when it hit the stone floor.

            "She clawed furiously at the Joker, driving him onto his back. She'd sliced open his chest and shoulder and across his cheek. He had his hands out in front of him, trying to protect himself. She pulled her hand back in what probably would have been a killing blow if Batman hadn't stopped her. 

            ""Selina!" he yelled. When he wanted it to, his voice could stop an army in its tracks. Catwoman held he hand inched from Joker's face for a brief moment before dropping it and stepping away from him. 

            ""She's still alive," Catwoman yelled back across the room. When I heard that I let out the breath I didn't know I'd been holding. "But she won't be for long if we don't get her some help."

            "Batman looked around at the hoards of men surrounding him and I did the same. The last few minutes had shocked everyone into silence. They were all standing still, rooted by the scene that had just played out. The Riddler had fainted. Batman looked across the room at Two-Face.

            ""How far are we going to take this, Harvey?" he asked. 

            "Harvey Dent - Two-Face - just glared. His scarred eye was almost swollen shut. Someone had gotten a good shot in. Slowly, he removed a silver dollar from his vest pocket and flipped it. We all knew that famed silver dollar, scarred on one side just as he was, was how he made his decisions. It spun through the air and into his open palm. From where I was, I couldn't see which side had landed face up. He looked at it before closing his hand into a fist. 

            ""I surrender," he said loudly.

            ""Aw, the hell with it," came another voice. It was Croc, who simply sat Indian style on the floor, his chin resting on his fists like a bored kid. "I give up, too. It's not like they'll be able to keep me locked up long."    

            "I looked back at the scaffolding. Catwoman had moved over and knelt over Batgirl. Given his injuries, I was surprised when the Joker staggered to his feet and produced a small, single shot pistol from his pocket. He pointed it at Catwoman's back. I was about to yell for her but she'd apparently been paying attention. She leapt up and delivered a roundhouse kick, connecting to his chest. He somersaulted backwards off the platform and landed with a cracking thud. He didn't move again. She glared out as if daring anyone, especially Batman, to reprimand her.  

            "He didn't. He simply produces a small transmitter from his belt and pressed the button. Unknown to us, agents had been tracking us from the surface. Even though the trip to the cave made it seem like we were deep underground, in reality we were only a few yards under the surface of a school playground. Using construction equipment, they were able to get to us quickly. It also made getting the wounded, including Barbara, out a lot quicker. She would never have survived the trip out, otherwise.

            When they managed to get her to the surface and pulled off her mask, Commissioner Gordon spun through every emotion possible. The surprise and grief at seeing his daughter lying on the stretcher gave way to an anger and fury I'd never seen in him before. He spun on Batman and yelled at him, demanding to know why batman had put his daughter in such danger and what gave him the right to play with her life in this manner. He took a swing at Batman and connected under the chin. Batman staggered back a step. He stopped the second punch by grabbing Gordon's wrist.

            ""She did her job," Batman said. "I'm sorry she was hurt. She knew the dangers going in. We all did."    

            ""Really," Gordon said, relaxing his stance. He pointed to the dead body of Jason Todd being pulled from the cavern. "Did he?"

            "Batman said nothing. He turned and walked away, ignoring the agents' demands that he not leave the scene until they got his statement. I was standing in the back of the crowd, in case anyone from the cavern tried to make a break for it. When batman brushed past me, I could see tears in his eyes. 

            "It wasn't until everything was cleared that I realized that Catwoman had disappeared as well."


End file.
